This article is based on two similar ones I wrote on Japan, and a more general one I wrote on culture in the EFL classroom everywhere. In contrast to Japan, I only stayed in Korea for two years and only taught in two different schools and didn’t learn the language, so although I did teach all ages and try to read a lot to make up for this, the inevitable generalisation of such articles might be
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TEFL Articles |
TEFL ArticlesWelcome to TEFL Articles, where you’ll find articles, essays, ideas and tips of special interest to teachers of English. If you have any articles that you would like to see on TEFL.net, please feel free to submit them. Also check out the TEFL Articles Archives for earlier material. You can browse articles by topic on the left. Latest articles are shown below. 6 August 2010 by Alex Case | Filed under Home and Abroad | Leave a Comment »
3 August 2010 by Graham Skerritt | Filed under Teacher Technique | 2 Comments »
I started studying Japanese not because I wanted to learn about language teaching, but because I was living in Japan and I wanted to be able to order food, go shopping and understand some of the things people were saying to me. However, I soon found that experiencing language lessons as a student was making me think more 1 August 2010 by Alex Case | Filed under Classroom Solutions | Leave a Comment »
Having students who are competitive can be a great stimulus to classroom learning and some teachers use points for everything, with points taken away being a great way of maintaining classroom discipline as well. There are, however, some 1 August 2010 by Alex Case | Filed under Classroom Solutions | Leave a Comment »
The positives From what I have read about TBL (Task-based Learning), there seems to be a lot of evidence that giving students thinking time before asking them to speak improves both the level of language they produce and their accuracy. Although more traditional teaching methodologies don’t include built in thinking time most people would, I imagine, have little problem accepting this fact. While there is much less 1 August 2010 by Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton | Filed under Admin | Leave a Comment »
To be the owner of a language school requires a comprehensive skill set. Since I began working in this sector in the mid-1990s, I’ve met hundreds of language school directors and owners. Those who direct programs at large institutions differ, both in character and skills, from those who own their school. 26 July 2010 by Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton | Filed under Admin | Leave a Comment »
If you run a small language school, you likely have greater challenges than programs at large institutions when it comes to marketing. You don’t have the same resources or access to a large networks of experts to help you. It’s even more important for you to “market smart”. 11 July 2010 by torkythai | Filed under Materials | Leave a Comment »
ESL teachers are constantly in need of interesting material for their students, whether those students are first-graders, teenagers, or adults. There is a wide range of lesson planning material available for ESL lessons on the Internet, provided by experienced ESL professionals. But much of it lacks the vital spark needed to ignite a student’s interest and wonder. How many sentences would you want to diagram during a lesson, and how often would you want to review the vocative as compared to the nominative? Useful language tools that sparkle with easily-understood humor are abundantly available in one of the greatest children’s books of all time, Alice’s 4 July 2010 by Alex Case | Filed under Tests and Testing | 1 Comment »
The expressions “level test” and “placement test” are used by different schools for the exact same thing, namely giving students an interview, a short written test and/ or a piece of writing to do in order to work out which class to put them in. This article is to argue, however, that not only is “placement test” a better name, but that the difference in wording between “level test” and “placement test” points out most of the deficiencies in such testing as it often takes place, whatever it is called. 28 June 2010 by Tara Benwell | Filed under Using English Club | Leave a Comment »
Why use Photos for Teaching English?
26 May 2010 by Alex Case | Filed under Home and Abroad | 1 Comment »
A surprisingly often heard complaint from English teachers all round the world, even in this globalised world, is “My students never use/ come across/ need English outside the classroom”. Although governments, school boards and parents do sometimes have an unrealistic idea of how much and when our students need English, once they have given us the task of teaching those students English there is little point repeating that complaint and it is much more worthwhile looking at how and when they do come across English as they live their lives. Luckily for us and them, the majority of the world’s population does come across some English on a nearly daily basis, just not in the “Ask the way to the post office” or “Talk about your hobbies” way that our textbooks often guide us to teach them. Here are some contexts in which our students will almost certainly come across English in their everyday lives, and then some ideas on |